Teaching and Learning English in the Primary School: Interlanguage Pragmatics in the EFL Context

297 Pages·2019·3.475 MB·English Language Education 18

by  Gila A. Schauer

English Language Education
Gila A. Schauer
Teaching
and Learning
English in the
Primary School
Interlanguage Pragmatics in the EFL
Context
English Language Education
Volume 18
Series Editors
Chris Davison, The University of New South Wales, Australia
Xuesong Gao, The University of New South Wales, Australia
Editorial Advisory Board
Stephen Andrews, University of Hong Kong, China
Anne Burns, University of New South Wales, Australia
Yuko Goto Butler, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Suresh Canagarajah, Pennsylvania State University, USA
James Cummins, OISE, University of Toronto, Canada
Christine C. M. Goh, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technology
University, Singapore
Margaret Hawkins, University of Wisconsin, USA
Ouyang Huhua, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China
Andy Kirkpatrick, Griffith University, Australia
Michael K. Legutke, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany
Constant Leung, King’s College London, University of London, UK
Bonny Norton, University of British Columbia, Canada
Elana Shohamy, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Qiufang Wen, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China
Lawrence Jun Zhang, University of Auckland, New Zealand
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11558
Gila A. Schauer
Teaching and Learning
English in the Primary
School
Interlanguage Pragmatics in the EFL Context
Gila A. Schauer
Department of Linguistics
University of Erfurt
Erfurt, Germany
ISSN 2213-6967 ISSN 2213-6975 (electronic)
English Language Education
ISBN 978-3-030-23256-6 ISBN 978-3-030-23257-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23257-3
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
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Dedicated to primary school EFL teachers
teaching English to young learners
everywhere
In memory of Alan Waters,
a great educator and teacher trainer
Acknowledgements
This book would not exist if I had not chatted with Grit Bergner, who was then
based at Erfurt University, while she was preparing materials for her MEd students
who were studying to become primary school EFL teachers. I picked up some of the
textbooks that she was working with and, while leafing through them, noticed that
there appeared to be very little pragmatic input. When I shared my impression with
Grit, she agreed that this would be an interesting research topic, so I then began
talking to some MEd students, who were planning to become primary school
teachers, and some in-service primary school teachers about my idea, and the
project grew from these discussions and the issues that were raised in them.
I am very grateful to Grit Bergner and Charlott Falkenhagen for initial discussions
about the project. This project would not have been possible without my research
assistants Stefanie Müller, Mareike Albrecht and Daniel Böhm – thank you so much
for brainstorming; for sharing your views, experiences and ideas; and for all your
hands-on work during the development and distribution of the survey, and data
collections at the schools.
My profound gratitude goes to the primary school teachers who took part in the
study, to the headteachers and teachers of the schools in which data collection with
pupils took place, and to the parents and legal guardians who allowed their children
to take part in this research project. A very big thank you goes to the primary school
learners who participated in the project.
I would also like to thank Beate Hampe, Petra Kirchhoff, Susanne Hoppe, Sandra
Stadler-Heer and Stephanie Karl for interesting discussions about the project.
A big thank you goes to Susanne Grimm for making sure that I did not lose sight
of the timeline and finances.
Thank you also to Susan Bretschneider and Dagmar Müller for all the support in
the Dean’s Office.
I am grateful to Nicola Halenko, Kenneth Fordyce, Chia-Chun Lai, Lena De
Mol, Naoko Osuka, Sadegh Sadeghidizaj and Masoud Shaghaghi for thought-
provoking discussions about teaching pragmatics to English as a foreign language
and English as a second language learners over the years.
vii
viii Acknowledgements
Special thanks go to my proofreaders for discussions about the readerfriendli-
ness of the book and for fine-combing through the manuscript.
I am grateful to Jolanda Voogd and Helen van der Stelt at Springer for their
support and encouragement for this project.
Special thanks are due to the anonymous reviewers for their encouragement,
many helpful suggestions and insightful comments. It is a privilege to receive pre-
publication feedback from experts in the field who truly endeavour to make a book
as reader-friendly, clear and accessible as possible.
I am very grateful to my aunts, uncles and cousins who are in-service or retired
teachers for sharing their experiences with me, for being so open about a variety of
issues, for giving feedback and for not minding when family get-togethers became
a little one-sided with regard to the topics discussed.
I am grateful and very much indebted to Astrid Hübschmann and Stefan Renner –
thank you for all your support and thought-provoking discussions over the years and
for never mincing your words.
My deepest gratitude goes to my parents – thank you for your love, support and
great sense of humour.
Contents
1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 1
References ......................................................................................................... 6
2 Literature Review ..................................................................................... 7
2.1 Pragmatics ........................................................................................ 7
2.1.1 Defining Pragmatics ............................................................. 8
2.1.2 Historical Background and Important Concepts
and Terms ............................................................................. 10
2.1.3 Speech Act Theory: Background ......................................... 17
2.1.4 Speech Act Theory: Requests .............................................. 21
2.1.5 Speech Act Theory: Responses to Requests ........................ 27
2.1.6 Speech Act Theory: Greetings and Leave-Takings .............. 30
2.1.7 Speech Act Theory: Expressions of Gratitude
and Responses to Expressions of Gratitude ......................... 32
2.1.8 Speech Act Theory: Apologies ............................................ 39
2.1.9 Speech Act Theory: Suggestions and Responses
to Suggestions ...................................................................... 43
2.1.10 Speech Act Theory: Expressing Feelings – Physical
and Mental States ................................................................. 45
2.1.11 Speech Act Theory and Politeness ....................................... 47
2.1.12 Speech Act Theory: Studies Investigating EFL
Textbook Input ..................................................................... 50
2.1.13 Speech Act Theory: L1 Pragmatics ..................................... 53
2.1.14 Data Collection Methods Involving Young Learners ........... 57
2.2 Concepts and Issues in ELT and SLA ............................................. 60
2.2.1 Communicative Competence ............................................... 61
2.2.2 Culture ................................................................................. 63
2.2.3 Intercultural Competence ..................................................... 64
2.2.4 Language Learning Contexts ............................................... 67
2.2.5 Noticing Hypothesis ............................................................ 70
2.2.6 Teaching EFL to Young Learners ........................................ 72
References .................................................................................................. 74
ix
x Contents
3 Methodology .............................................................................................. 85
3.1 The German and Thuringian Education Context ............................. 85
3.2 L2 Learners of English in Primary Schools ..................................... 87
3.2.1 Participants........................................................................... 87
3.2.2 Data Elicitation Method ....................................................... 89
3.2.3 Procedure ............................................................................. 90
3.3 EFL Primary Teachers in Thuringia ................................................ 91
3.3.1 Participants........................................................................... 91
3.3.2 Instrument ............................................................................ 94
3.3.3 Procedure ............................................................................. 95
3.4 EFL Teaching Materials ................................................................... 96
3.4.1 Textbooks ............................................................................. 96
3.4.2 Picture Books ....................................................................... 98
3.5 Speech Act Categories ..................................................................... 101
3.5.1 Requests ............................................................................... 101
3.5.2 Responses to Requests ......................................................... 104
3.5.3 Greetings and Leave-Takings .............................................. 105
3.5.4 Thanking and Responding to Thanks .................................. 107
3.5.5 Apologies ............................................................................. 108
3.5.6 Suggestions and Responses to Suggestions ......................... 108
3.5.7 Expressing Feelings – Physical and Mental States .............. 110
Appendix .................................................................................................... 111
A. Written Task Completed by the Young L2 Learners ......................... 111
B. Spoken Task Completed by the Young L2 Learners ......................... 112
C. Questions in the Teacher’s Survey .................................................... 114
References .................................................................................................. 116
4 Results: Speech Acts in Textbooks ........................................................... 119
4.1 Overview of Speech Act Instances .................................................. 119
4.2 Making and Responding to Requests .............................................. 124
4.2.1 Requests ............................................................................... 125
4.2.2 Responding to Requests ....................................................... 129
4.3 Greetings and Leave-Takings .......................................................... 133
4.3.1 Greetings .............................................................................. 133
4.3.2 Leave-Takings ...................................................................... 138
4.4 Thanking and Responding to Thanks .............................................. 141
4.4.1 Expressions of Gratitude ...................................................... 141
4.4.2 Responses to Expressions of Gratitude ................................ 144
4.5 Apologies ......................................................................................... 146
4.6 Suggestions and Responses to Suggestions ..................................... 148
4.6.1 Suggestions .......................................................................... 148
4.6.2 Responses to Suggestions .................................................... 150
4.7 Expressing Physical and Mental States ........................................... 152
4.8 Chapter Summary ............................................................................ 154
References .................................................................................................. 157